Congregational Library

Doing an Oral History Interview

Make a list of people to interview. They should represent a variety of different experiences within the congregation, and might include people in leadership as well as younger or newer members.
Plan your conversation. Develop a list of topics and possible subtopics, to make sure the conversation flows. Create a general outline you and work from.
Begin contacting people, explaining the project, and topics you'd like to discuss.
Set up the tape recorder and make sure nothing will go wrong! Do you have a long enough extension cord? Extra batteries? Does the microphone work? Take a small notebook and twice as many tapes as you think you'll need.

Begin by chatting briefly, creating rapport with factual, easy questions. After a few minutes, stop the recorder and play back the interview to make sure you're getting everything.
The narrator is the star, so try to keep your comments to a minimum.
Ask broad, open-ended questions, not yes or no questions. Avoid leading questions ("Don't you think that . . .")
Ask follow-up questions that are brief and to the point.
Don't interrupt. Avoid "social noises" (uh huh, hmmm, yes indeed).
Keep to your plan, but follow leads as the narrator opens them up. If necessary steer the interview back on topic.
Don't avoid sensitive or controversial topics.
Keep to two hours maximum.
End with more informal ( untaped) conversation.

Label each tape (narrator, your name, date, total number of tapes for the interview).
Write up your own notes about the interview, evaluating strengths and weaknesses.
Develop a running summary of the conversation. Transcribe if possible.